actually to leave people happy by exercising your persuasion skills. It’s a different skill to DJing obviously, but handling a call in a professional and skilful way is another way to put a smile on people’s faces and it’s no less effective than being a good entertainer.”


Mr Hamuda was promoted to Team Manager on both onsite accounts within 18 months and in 2003, he was shortlisted for a Sitel UK and Ireland Achiever Award.


“Awards and honours are a key part of what we do at Sitel,” Mr Hamuda says. “The people in this industry have to stay very motivated every minute – there’s no downtime. We are more measured and analysed than practically any other industry because we have to prove to our clients that we can do the job more efficiently and skillfully than they can do it themselves, so a good employer will spend a lot of time ensuring their staff are happy and rewarded for good work. It will be noticed! I have been on the other side of the fence as one of the troops so I understand that as a manager.


“For me, outsourced call centre work as a career gets a bad press – how many people can say their boss notices their good work on a daily basis or even knows what they are doing half the time? We monitor and measure our people constantly to achieve our KPIs – Key Performance Indicators.”


Mr Hamuda’s next job within Sitel saw him promoted to his first analyst role, and getting intimately involved with analysis of KPIs as a Project Analyst with a key recreation business at Sitel’s Kingston-Upon-Thames site.


The next promotion came within a year, as Operations Manager on blue chip accounts. Two years later, in February 2008, Mr Hamuda was promoted again to Senior Operations Manager looking after the entire Watford site while he was mentored by his boss to become Site Director there. This most recent promotion came this summer (2010).


“KPIs sound dry, but they really drive me. It’s the attention to detail thing I think – it’s a bit like being in music production, where I worked with a software system called Cubase: imagine a screen with lots of different lines with lots of types of beats and samples on it. Instead of the sounds, I now work with data in complex multiple lines of spreadsheets. I have to analyse that data such as call arrival patterns, scheduling and shifts – just like I used to assess and organise the sounds.”


“Then there’s the fun bit – creatively coming up with ways to make the data better by moving the information around – just like you create a track on Cubase.”


“For me, this job is even more challenging and creative than music production because I work with people to help make their jobs more efficient; and deliver the best possible service to our clients and their customers.”


“That involves persuasion and knowledge of the job of course – and people skills. I worked at every level of the company now, and it’s a good feeling that I know my work inside out and back to front. All in all, I think we have a pretty harmonic company!”


So what next for a man who has 55


worked his way up in 10 years from taking calls to managing 350 people on several blue chip client accounts worth millions?


“This role will last for some time,” says Mr Hamuda. “The next step I imagine will involve some sort of regional role. I am quite ambitious so I would hope to continue moving up the ranks.”


Typical salaries in the call centre industry


Role Agent Team Manager


Operations Manager


Senior


Operations Manager


Site Director


Regional Director


Salary


(£11,500 – 18,500)


(£15,500 - £25,000)


(£30,000 - £45,000)


(£40,000 - £55,000)


(£55,000 - £80,000)


(£95,000 - £120,000)


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